[S]en. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has thrown his political weight behind protests planned Thursday against former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is slated to appear at a GOP fundraiser in Burlington alongside Vermont Gov. Phil Scott.
Unions have been planning for weeks to protest outside the event. Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign sent an email to supporters Wednesday asking them to join the action.
“Scott Walker made his name busting unions, cutting health care, and gutting funding for public education,” the statement said.
“Scott Walker’s brand of divide-and-conquer politics has no place in Burlington — the city that sparked out political revolution by electing Bernie Sanders as mayor in 1981,” it added. “Can you join us in Burlington tomorrow to protest Scott Walker’s event?”
During his 2016 campaign for president, Sanders railed against Walker’s positions on corporate spending in politics, unions, education and abortion.
“In other words,” Sanders said, “you can get a pretty good idea of what I’ll do as president by looking at Scott Walker and thinking I’ll do exactly the opposite.”
Walker lost his bid for reelection last year, but signed a bill before be left office stripping the incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers of much of his executive power.
He responded to criticism from the Sanders campaign in a series of Tweets on Thursday, arguing that his claims about investment in education, public union busting and healthcare access were all erroneous.
“Don’t let the facts get in the way of your political rhetoric,” said one of the tweets\. Walker also tweeted about the collapse of Venezuela’s economy, in what has become a common trope among critics of Sanders’ Democratic-Socialist political agenda.
The Sanders campaign attacked Walker in Wednesday’s email for his continued involvement in efforts backed by the billionaire Koch brothers.
A number of Vermont’s labor unions and activist groups slammed Scott for agreeing to join the event with Walker, who is far to his right politically, especially on social issues.
“To labor unions, woman’s groups, racial justice organizations, and pro-union progressives of all stripes, Scott Walker represents the worst of the worst in terms of the wrong direction the extremist-anti-union-right would like to take our country if given the change (sic),” said a statement released by the unions earlier this month.
At least two dozen unions are expected to take part in a protest and picket line Thursday, which is scheduled to begin at Battery Park at 5 p.m., move to the Hilton Hotel at 5:30 p.m. and remain there until 7:15 p.m., the statement said.
Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, said he would be at the protest.
“I think it’s going to be a fairly large crowd. My guess is that it will rival the number of people inside the event — you know he’s a pretty polarizing force,” Howard said. “I think it’s fair to say that every union in the Vermont labor movement is participating in some way.”
Howard said the picket line would be peaceful, but would send a clear message about how labor unions view Walker’s political influence.
“People are going to have to make their own decision about whether they want to cross the picket line,” Howard said.
“What we are making clear to the politicians in that room — the governor and others — is if you go down the road that Scott Walker went down, it’s a very short road that leads to you being a former governor or former politician,” he added.
Vermont GOP Party Chair Deb Billado was not immediately available for contact Wednesday evening. Scott told VPR last week that he did not invite Walker to Vermont, but feels obliged to welcome him to a Republican event.
